The Middle East

Tunisia’s police

Entering the political fray

TWELVE soldiers, eight members of the national guard and a policeman have been killed on active service against armed Islamist groups in Tunisia over the past year. In the latest incident, on October 23rd, six national guardsmen were killed at a hamlet near the central town of Sidi Bouzid, where they had been sent to investigate a tip-off of suspicious activity. The rising death toll is prompting ever more anguished public criticism of the Islamist-led government. Meanwhile, the security services, emboldened, are beginning to flex their political muscle.

Ali Laarayedh, the prime minister, has ceded to pressure from opposition parties and pledged to resign by mid-November. A deal on a new constitution is expected soon after that, as an interim, non-party cabinet takes the country up to elections early next year. The army and the defence ministry have remained aloof from politics, but at the interior ministry a bewildering array of new trade unions—representing the national guard, the police, riot police, the prison service and civil defence units—has moved centre stage. Such union activity would have been unimaginable under Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, the former president who was ousted in 2011. He kept his police services on a tight rein, even as he deployed them to crack down on political dissent.

When Mr Laarayedh and President Moncef Marzouki arrived late for the funeral of two slain national guard members on October 18th, a crowd of union members greeted them, calling for their exit from government. For this foray into politics, some union organisers were suspended from their jobs. But a week later they were back with a bold communiqué reiterating demands that senior ministry officials appointed under the government led by the Islamist Nahda party should be dismissed, and that police imprisoned during the revolution should be freed. They even threatened to have Mr Laarayedh prosecuted over recent deaths of serving men. Another of the new unions has not gone as far, but blames the government for not having woken up sooner to the threat from extremists.

Indeed the wave of extremist violence shows no let-up. On October 30th, a Tunisian man blew himself up near a hotel in the coastal resort of Sousse. Thirty minutes later a would-be suicide-bomber was arrested outside the mausoleum of Habib Bourguiba, Tunisia's first post independence president, at another tourist town, Monastir. The same day, the government announced new measures to provide financial help for the families of soldiers, police and members of the national guard killed on active service. Amid the uncertainty in the nascent democracy, one thing is clear: as the country grapples with the regional threat of radical Islamists, the political leverage of the security services has been strengthened, despite their chequered past.

I'm reminded of Abba Eban's comment about the Palestinians (and I don't mean to pick on them): they never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity. The Arab Spring was misnamed; it should have been called Arab Autumn because it has led only to the harshness of winter.